The development of theories on the nature of light.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2144/9571

Abstract

In this thesis I plan to trace man's thoughts on the nature of light from earliest times up to the present. I shall select those highlights which will reveal the growth and development of each theory out of the experiences and speculations of the past. The chief contributors of the Greek and Roman period are Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Aristotle, Lucretius, and Euclid. The philosophers and scientists of this period had noted the rectilinear propagation of light, the equality of angles for incident and reflected rays at plane and concave surfaces, and the change of direction of a ray on entering a different medium. But only the first two of these properties could be explained by means of the current emission theories. The rainbow and mirage were quite familiar to the ancients. [TRUNCATED]

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Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University

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